ON Remembrance Day I wonder how many poppies will be worn with pride and gratitude to the honour of the men and women of this and other lands who gave their lives through two world wars and other conflicts?

On Remembrance Sunday you will see pious politicians with bowed heads and solemn faces standing silent, some waiting to lay a wreath of poppies, others who decry the very name of England.

There will be faceless men and women of an almost defunct and desecrated Commonwealth and Empire dripping with hypocrisy waiting their turn to lay a wreath.

Once we were the envy of less happier lands, I bitterly resent I should forget my heritage, my old value of traditions and I despair that our history or scriptures no longer seem to be taught with any priority in our schools.

The Union Jack, the Flag of St George, Rule Britannia and God Save the Queen are no longer the edict of this island.

I do not expect to be classified as a European, a Britain, a British man or a man from the UK -- I am an Englishman and expect to be recognised as such.

How many more poppy days will there be before it is an offence to be a patriot?

These are times shrouded in suspicion and danger, danger from Europe tightening its grip on a nation who once had resolve, strength and backbone.

The shame, humiliation, the sickening hypocrisy is a national scandal, we just do not seem to care any more.

ERIC BATES, Marsden Road, Burnley.